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The Brave Little Bat
'The Brave Little Bat '''is a 1941 ''Merrie Melodies cartoon. Plot Sniffles' car breaks down, so he takes refuge in an old windmill wehn it starts raining. The keeper of the windmill is a talkative bat which is similar in appearance to Sniffles, but with bat-like wings and with a different color scheme. There also happens to be a cat with a hungry appetite which attempts to devour Sniffles, and the bat saves the mouse from the cat at every turn. Notes * This is the final cartoon where Margaret Hill-Talbot voices Sniffles, as beginning with the next Sniffles cartoon The Unbearable Bear (1943), Marjorie Tarlton, who voices the talkative bat in this cartoon, takes over as the voice of Sniffles. * This is also the final Sniffles cartoon with the Disney-esque cutesy direction and slow-pacing. Beginning with The Unbearable Bear, the Sniffles cartoons are faster-paced and more comedic in tone, due to director Chuck Jones moving out of his Disney-esque phase in the early-to-mid-1940s. Sniffles would continue to appear in three more cartoons after this before he has been retired for good in 1946. * Unlike most old a.a.p. transfers appearing on the first four volumes of The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc releases, this cartoon did not have it's original Blue Ribbon opening titles intact, due to re-using the Cartoon Festivals VHS master which alters its original opening Color Rings by mistake; in this case when this cartoon was released on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4 laserdisc in 1993, the Cartoon Festivals VHS master which hacks off it's BR opening rings was used https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3e68EPLkUE, and had the altered a.a.p. opening as seen at the start of almost all the Cartoon Festival tapes in the vein of Daffy Doodles (consisting of the a.a.p. opening of ''Inki and the Lion'' with the 1939-1940 Merrie Melodies opening music cue) edited in to make up for it's lost BR opening rings, albeit shortened https://vk.com/video11652739_169492995 ** It could be possible that this is one of the very few 1986 Cartoon Festivals VHS prints to permanently lose their original opening titles due to these affected shorts having their opening rings cut or altered for this VHS collection, until at least when the 1995 Turner "dubbed version" prints take their place. This could possibly explain why some shorts that have been previously released in this said VHS collection such as ''Trap Happy Porky'', ''Slick Hare'', ''Tweetie Pie'', etc. have their a.a.p. transfers replaced for the Cartoon Moviestars VHS collection and The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc set, either with a newer MGM print from circa-1987/1988 or an older a.a.p. print from the early-1980s. ** It is unknown whether this cartoon's older a.a.p. print from before 1986 survives its Blue Ribbon opening. ** This is one of the only three cartoons on the first four volumes of The Golden Age of Looney Tunes laserdisc set to have altered opening titles replacing their hacked-off opening titles, the other two are ''The Bear's Tale'' (1940, appearing on Volume 1) and ''Bars and Stripes Forever'' (1939, also appearing on Volume 4, much like this cartoon). ** The 1995 Turner "dubbed version" print (regardless of USA or EU prints) of this cartoon on the other hand restores its Blue Ribbon opening rings, but alters it's original ending card in return https://vk.com/video-5286402_156059281. Availability * (1986) VHS - Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Sniffles the Mouse Cartoon Festival Featuring "Sniffles Bells the Cat" * (1993) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4, Side 9 * (2012) Blu-ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection, Disc 1 References Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones Category:1941 Category:Shorts Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Sniffles Cartoons Category:Cartoons written by Rich Hogan Category:Cartoons animated by Rudy Larriva Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package Category:Cartoons with camera by John W. Burton Category:Cartoons with missing Leon Schlesinger credits